‘Manufacturing to be engine of Oman’s growth in future’
Oman needs to continue diversifying into more advanced stages of industrialisation, says MoCI senior official
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman is aiming to make manufacturing a future engine of growth, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
“Manufacturing has come a long way from what it was 40 years ago. From a few companies producing some staple food, clothing, jewellery and some repair shops, today, we have large modern refineries, cement plants, steel and aluminium mills,” Sami bin Salem Al Sahib, Director General of the Directorate General of Industry in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said.
“However, the role of manufacturing in leading us away from volatile oil and steel prices and into a modern, advanced and affluent society cannot end here. Oman needs to continue diversifying into more advanced stages of industrialisation.”
“It is these new industries that will allow us to achieve true diversification and will look after our grandchildren. And we will have to develop smart rules and incentives that allow us to make manufacturing Oman’s ‘engine of growth’,” he added.
Al Sahib made the comments during a workshop organised to discuss the preliminary results of the Sultanate’s 2040 Industrial Strategy. The workshop titled “Building Oman’s 2040 Industrial Strategy” was held at Crowne Plaza Muscat-OCEC and was attended by executives from the public and private sectors.
Al Sahib added, “One just has to walk around Rusayl, Sohar’s industrial estate and free zone, Nizwa industrial estate and Salalah’s industrial estate and free zone to find physical evidence of what has been achieved. And one day we will find something similar, or even more in Duqm. Let us not forget that manufacturing accounted for less than one per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1980 and at its peak accounted for 11.4 per cent of GDP.”